Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Fan Fiction & Poetry
Open Discussion of RPS Stories in Light of Heath's Death
blacktears:
--- Quote from: Dagi on February 02, 2008, 06:34:39 pm ---IMHO it doesn't make any difference if the person an RPS story is written about is alive or dead. Either you find it okay to write/read fake (sex) stories about a real person or not. I don't like them, but that's just me. I wouldn't want to read fake (sex) stories about me in the internet either, and even less if I was a well known person.
Dagi
--- End quote ---
I agree with this. Death has nothing to do with it, if anything it has LESS to do with it now that the person isn't here to read it. (Though the image of Heath sitting down to read his own RPS is hilarious). If you've never liked RPS, fine. What I don't understand is the sudden change people are making because he died. People still write about John Lennon and James Dean and nothing changed. It didn't bring them back or hurt them (or their family) anymore. It's giving RPS authors more credit than needed to assume celebs are going to come on-line and read their stories. But I will say thank you for the compliment of assuming such a thing. ;)
blacktears:
--- Quote from: ENEN on February 02, 2008, 02:46:51 pm ---Yes, IMO, I think that illustrates the problem with RPS. I think to many of them Heath was never real and that's why they think they can write anything about him without thought to the consequences it may have on his family, friends and even some fans. As Louise pointed out it is about respect for the individual which RPS lacks.
--- End quote ---
Also, I realise Heath was very much real, but thank you for implying otherwise.
Don't assume you know what authors are thinking because you don't. Ever.
You have every right to not read RPS (though it still baffles me how you all will criticize something you don't even plan to read) but to assume you know why and how or what about what is inside a person's mind, well that's just not something you can do and call it a fact. It's simply your opinion.
As long as readers don't bother RPS writers, I see nothing wrong with having little threads like this to discuss in and agree with each other.
ENEN:
--- Quote from: blacktears on February 02, 2008, 09:53:08 pm ---Also, I realise Heath was very much real, but thank you for implying otherwise.
Don't assume you know what authors are thinking because you don't. Ever.
You have every right to not read RPS (though it still baffles me how you all will criticize something you don't even plan to read) but to assume you know why and how or what about what is inside a person's mind, well that's just not something you can do and call it a fact. It's simply your opinion.
As long as readers don't bother RPS writers, I see nothing wrong with having little threads like this to discuss in and agree with each other.
--- End quote ---
Oh I'm not assuming anything. I'm only going by what some writers have said. I've read where they have said they don't consider Heath real but a character in a pretend story. Granted I'm sure not every writer feels that way. But don't you make the assumption that none of them feel or write that way.
As for not being able to understand how I could criticize something I don't read let me give you an example to clarify for you. I don't read racist skinhead literature but I disapprove of it and would criticize it. It's actually quite understandable how one could do that.
louisev:
--- Quote from: blacktears on February 02, 2008, 09:53:08 pm ---Also, I realise Heath was very much real, but thank you for implying otherwise.
Don't assume you know what authors are thinking because you don't. Ever.
You have every right to not read RPS (though it still baffles me how you all will criticize something you don't even plan to read) but to assume you know why and how or what about what is inside a person's mind, well that's just not something you can do and call it a fact. It's simply your opinion.
As long as readers don't bother RPS writers, I see nothing wrong with having little threads like this to discuss in and agree with each other.
--- End quote ---
It is easy to determine what authors think because they have written a great deal about what they think - particularly recently. And writers have repeatedly said that they do not consider the Jake and Heath they write about as 'anything more than characters.'
If you are an RPS reader, or writer, nothing compels you to debate this point here. And this thread is being moderated only to screen out personal attacks - all opinions are welcome to be voiced, and this is one of the few places where opinions are not moderated. I stopped voicing my objections to RPS on another forum because I was asked not to - by a moderator. No such content moderation is done on this forum, nor will it.
malina:
I was amazed to discover that RPS existed, a little more than a year ago. Actually, my reaction to it was much the same as my initial reaction of fanfic in general, which was also new to me. I was incredulous that it was "allowed"... totally incredulous, and kind of fascinated, and also quite drawn in, because the only RPS/ fanfiction I have ever read, to this date, was Jack/Ennis and Heath/Jake. Both and either, if done well, can be sizzling and lovely..
But, I do draw a distinction between the two. I have written Jack/Ennis fanfics, but I don't think it ever crossed my mind to try and write RPS. But, as I have read it and enjoyed it, implicitly, I don't judge those who do write it.
After Heath's death, I don't think I could read any more RPS involving him.. or Jake either, for that matter. It's like ... well, RPS is a fantasy, right? A collective, or shared fantasy... and there's nothing inherently wrong with that. It's different from sharing, say, fantasies about your next door neighbour, because these are people who have put their personas out there for the public. A piece of that person becomes.. well, disjointed, separated from who he really is. In a sense, it's like when I was fourteen and I had a picture of Matt Dillon with no shirt on in my locker. I had no idea and little concern for who he really was. It was just that shirtless piece of him... like a little slice of the man's persona.
But when someone dies, and we mourn him... well, now it feels like he can't be anything but real. It's like he's taken back all those pieces of himself that were dispersed out in the world, and he's just real Heath. Not our fantasy, collective or otherwise - just real flesh and blood existance. And we can't play with that. That's my gut feeling, anyway.
I don't know how it will be as time passes. And I don't know if ... well, it's very soothing, right now, to read little Jack w/ Ennis stories, and feel like they're living their lives, still, somewhere. But they were fictional characters to begin with. It might be soothing to believe that Heath lives on, too, but the truth is that he doesn't, not on the physical plane, anyhow. To pretend otherwise is to ignore the fact of his death, and that really does seem disrespectful, somehow..
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